Is It Really the Inside that Counts?
by Hayal Kurmak
Summary: Sometimes Gintama has very serious moments. Kagura has a confrontation with her hated rival, Okita Sougo.


Sometimes people were like figs. They looked disgusting on the outside and, depending on one's taste, they were disgusting on the inside too. Sometimes figs could be made into preserves and those appealed to many, many people. Figs came from bushes that grew as tall as small trees.

"Oi, you're disturbing the peace, illegal alien."

"You are definitely not a fig. You would make horrible preserves."

Sougo sniffed. "I thought your brain couldn't crack anymore."

She glared at him. He glared back.

After a few moments, she sighed and looked away.

"Hey now, aren't you always after my head? Hey. I'll have to arrest you for lying to a police officer," he said with a bored tone.

Kagura clicked her tongue. "As if you do your job anyway. Worthless, that's what you are, yup."

His usually expressionless face was already marred by his annoyance of her presence, and furthermore angered by her manner.

"You on your period or something? Is Danna starving you? Is that monster pet of yours popping everywhere?"

She didn't answer. She didn't look at him either.

He didn't like that.

Unsheathing his sword, Sougo did the only thing he knew to do: elicit a response from a show of violence. He placed the sharp blade across her neck.

They sat in this position for a long three minutes. The feel of the cold steel against her neck had little effect on her. Vaguely she wondered how they had even ended up here. Somehow they had both decided to be at the Shimura's dojo at the same time. Maybe it was something about Kondo and Anue and death by eggs. And somehow they managed to both find and sit at a bench at the left wing of the dojo.

Kagura finally reacted when Sougo, further irked by her lack of response, pressed the blade into her neck. A trickle of blood ran down the blade and stained her pale skin.

She placed her hand on the blade, squeezing it so hard that it cut her, forced it out of his grip, and tossed it a short distance away.

Sougo let out a relieved sigh, not bothering to grab his sword. "Now I don't care what you're thinking because why would I care anyway, but you pay attention to me when I'm talking to you."

She hit him with her umbrella. "As if I'm going to do what you command. I'm not a masochist and I don't care about you either, In fact," she added, her eyes aglow with something like rage, "I really hate you."

"Well that's nothing new. At least I'm not gross and eat a whole town and throw up a waterfall," he said, unfazed by her insult.

"At least I'm a good person," she said, tilting up her chin.

Sougo snorted.

"I don't hurt people for fun!" she exclaimed.

This time he leaned back and held his stomach as if he was holding back lots of laughter.

Kagura fumed and stood up. "I don't kill people for fun, either! No matter how strong I am or how much I heat, I am not and will not become a monster," she said, pointing a finger at him."

"I…." he started, but was put off by the sound of true rage in her voice and the look of accusation in her face.

China was really, very seriously, angry. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with her or this sort of situation.

So he stood up to pick up his sword and then started walking away. It wasn't his place nor his desire to calm down an angry Yato. That was what Danna was for.

Just as he was rounding the corner, he heard a low trembling voice call out, "You… how can you find such joy in the slaughter of others? Why do you revel in the blood from your enemies?"

He turned back around to see that she was sat on the bench facing his direction. Her body was trembling and her hands were balled into fists. Sougo felt an alien urge to make her tremble more by tightening her in his chains, but a voice somewhere in the depths of the abyss called his soul told him that this wasn't the best time.

Instead he took a deep breath and slowly walked back to the bench. "What is it you want, alien pig?"

She glared at him and he felt as if arrows of hatred and anger were shot at his whole body.

Sougo placed a hand to his forehead. He was already tired of this. "What's wrong with you? Why would you care what I do? Just how much expired milk have you stolen from Danna?"

For a moment she did not respond. When he was about to try and leave again, he was stopped by her hand grasping his. He look down at their hands and began to say something, but was again cut off as she yanked his hand, bringing him down to her level and awfully close to her face.

He was staring into the eyes for a, for some reason, pissed off Yato and he felt his heart race in excitement from the challenge he assumed she was giving, and also very strangely from being so close to her face.

"You wanna fight now?" he asked quietly, eyebrows raised.

"I want you to answer me," she replied, tightening her grip.

The pain on his wrist told him that an annoyed, but not enraged, Yato was far less threatening on his life.

Not that he was scared by any means. Rather, he was intrigued and felt this a challenge he must accept.

"Fine," he said, leaning even closer so he could whisper into her ear, "Have it your way. Soon enough I'll kill you anyway."

His actions and words had immediate effect: she grew even redder than before and slung him to the ground. "Are you seriously trying to piss me off even more, Sadist?!" she screeched.

Sougo, now flat on his back, rubbed his head. "Stupid alien, isn't that what you asked for?"

"No!" she yelled again, stomping her foot on his stomach. He coughed and cringed in pain. "I want you to answer my freakin' question!"

"You asked me like four questions!" he shot back, grabbing her ankle. "How am I supposed to know which one you want me to answer?!" He pulled hard, making her fall off the bench and land beside him. "What. Do. You. Want?" he asked angrily. Kagura wasn't the only one pissed now.

"Why," she began, stopped, turned her head, and mumbled the rest.

He reached over and forced her to look at him by turning her head back around to face him. "You got me all worked up and forcing me to answer your stupid questions and _now_ you ain't gonna face me _and_ you're going to _mumble_? No no China girl," he said, digging his fingernails into her cheeks, "this is _your_ doing."

Kagura bit her lower lip, glowering at the sadist. He stared back, followed by a staring contest which resulted in her finally prying his hands off her face, which left red marks, and saying in a low but audible voice, "Why are you making it easy to act as a vicious, blood-thirsty monster when I try so hard to subdue my inner, natural beast?"

Huh?

Sougo blinked, scratched his head, and sat up.

Really?

How was he supposed to answer that? That wasn't… oh, right.

With a shrug he said, "That's your problem, China. What do I have to do with your 'inner beast' or whatever? Are you secretly a Gorilla? There's only room for two of those you know, one lives here at this run-down dojo and the other hiding somewhere h – "

A slap on his face interrupted his speech. "What the he – "

"Shut up! Gah you talk too much. You're sounding like Shinpachi. I'm really trying to understand why you go cutting people down you do!" she yelled.

"So loud!" he said, covering his ears, his face stinging from her slap. "I don't care about your stupid inner whatever, so how can you expect me to answer? Maybe I oughta open up your insides and prod around inside until the sides shock me!"

"What do you think my body is, a game of Operation?" she spat, arms flailing about. "Why do you enjoy killing, Sadist?"

"It's what I do best! I'm a prodigy you know!"

"Why must you revel in it?!"

"Why the heck not?!"

"Because it makes you a monster!" she screeched. They were both on their feet now.

"So what?!" he yelled in her face. They were so close to each other that their hair was touching. "What's it to you?"

"Why do you have to act in such a way?"

He threw up his hands and stepped back. "Haven't we already been through this?"

She started to kick him, but he caught her leg. With a snarl she asked him again, "Why? Why can you release what I have to control?"

"China, I – " he began, but stopped himself. He put down her foot and looked directly at her. "In the end, China, I fight to protect. You should understand that."

Kagura's face immediately softened and her eyes widened. Right. She knew that very well. But…

"But I can't do what you do."

"And why not?" he asked. "Don't you want to protect Danna and the glasses kid?"

"I almost killed a man once. One of my own kind," she said quietly, looking away.

"Another pig-eating illegal alien? That's great. And why didn't you? It would have been easy, right?" He tilted his head.

She grew angry again. "Because _someone_ had the good sense to stop me. Stop me from becoming a monster and killing one of the few surviving Yatos."

Sougo's shoulders fell and he sighed. "What's this gotta do with me again? Who cares. You are who you are now, and I am what I am now. Neither of us can change that, China."

Kagura stared at him in shock.

"Are you really that surprised? We protect what and who we want to protect in our own ways, and how we go about it is our own business and not to be questioned by others."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he shook his head. "No. Listen. So what if you are hiding an evil burnt potato or whatever inside. What if I enjoy slicing up a few bad guys. We're here now and aside from bringing me intense pain even though I've listened to your stupid ramblings – " she gave him a death glare, " – and you haven't completely, but mostly, lost your senses – ow!" he said as she hit him again, "… and I'm not enjoying your blood splattered across me either, in fact I haven't been enjoying this at all – "

"Okay, okay. I got it," she interrupted. She sat down on the bench. "You can go now."

"Gee thanks. I'm exhausted," he said, heaving a great, exaggerated sigh as he followed suit. She glanced at him but didn't say anything.

"You really should have known better after that time that anti-faction group was using that girl against me or whatever – you read me like a book. Seriously, you're getting dumber every day, China."

She scoffed. "Shut up. It was obvious you were hiding something."

"Not to the Shinsengumi. Not to that little girl. No, China," he said in a low voice, and she realized he was very close to her, "No, you knew. You ought to have known better."

"So what if I didn't," she retorted, her face red once again but for an entirely different reason.

"Stupid alien," he smirked.

She didn't look at him. "I said you can go," she muttered.

"Fine. But just so you know," he said, inching even closer and talking right into her ear, "If you ever lose to your Yato monster in my presence, I'll make sure to kill the enemy before you do."

Her head whipped around and she stared at him.

"And if that doesn't settle the matter, then I will spill your blood until you return to normal."

Stunned, Kagura just sat there as his eyes bored into hers. After a minute of silence, Sougo stood.

"Next time, China, please inform Danna about your problems. I'd rather not be your personal punching bag."

As he successfully managed to round the corner, he heard a strained "thank you" behind him. He allowed himself the slightest of smiles and waved a hand.

"Now I wonder if Hijikata had that bottle mayonnaise I poisoned last night…"


End file.
